The maintask of the researchis to achieveimmortalityHeyworth.The scientistplans tobefullypresentexperiment.As stated byTheChronicle, hewantshis brainneuronsthatbecome the basisfora new device,beforehe dies.To do this,Heyvorthplans tokill himself.Hewas surethat ifthe experimentsucceeds,he willbeable toliterallystart a new life.

Thursday, 26 July 2012

"This is even more shocking because the dusty disc of rocky debris was bigger and much more massive than Saturn's rings. " Astronomers report a baffling discovery never seen before: An extraordinary amount of dust around a nearby star has mysteriously disappeared. The disc around this star, if it were in our solar system, would have extended from the sun halfway out to Earth, near the orbit of Mercury. "It's like the classic magician's trick -- now you see it, now you don't," said Carl Melis, a postdoctoral scholar at UC San Diego and lead author of the research. "

"It's as if the rings around Saturn had disappeared," said co-author Benjamin Zuckerman, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy. "Only in this case, we're talking about enough dust to fill an inner solar system, and it really is gone!

Now, very little of the warm, dusty material thought to originate from collisions of rocky planets is apparent. "Nothing like this has ever been seen in the many hundreds of stars that astronomers have studied for dust rings," Zuckerman said. The research on this cosmic vanishing act, which occurred around a star some 450 light years from Earth, in the direction of the constellation Centaurus, appears July 5 in the journal Nature. "This disappearance is remarkably fast, even on a human time scale, much less an astronomical scale. "A perplexing thing about this discovery is that we don't have a satisfactory explanation to address what happened around this star," said Melis, a former UCLA astronomy graduate student. The dust disappearance at TYC 8241 2652 was so bizarre and so quick, initially I figured that our observations must simply be wrong in some strange way. "

Melis describes the star, designated TYC 8241 2652, as a "young analog of our sun" that only a few years ago displayed all of the characteristics of "hosting a solar system in the making," before transforming completely. "The disappearing act appears to be independent of the star itself, as there is no evidence to suggest that the star zapped the dust with some sort of mega-flare or any other violent event. "

In 2009, it started to dim. Like Earth, warm dust absorbs the energy of sunlight and re-radiates that heat energy as infrared radiation. "

The dust had been present around the star since at least 1983 (no one had observed the star in the infrared before then), and it continued to glow brightly in the infrared for 25 years. Norm Murray, director of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, who was not part of the research group, said, "The history of astronomy has shown that events that are not predicted and hard to explain can be game-changers. An infrared image obtained by the Gemini telescope as recently as May 1 of this year confirmed that the warm dust has now been gone for two-and-a-half years. Because so much dust had been orbiting around the star, planets very likely are forming there, said Zuckerman, whose research is funded by NASA. Was it somehow swallowed by the star The dust likely resulted from a violent collision -- but that would not explain where it went. The lack of an existing model for what is going on around this star is forcing astronomers to rethink what happens within young solar systems in the making. By 2010, the dust emission was gone; the astronomers observed the star twice that year from the Gemini Observatory in Chile, six months apart.

"In one case, gas produced in the impact that released the dust helps to quickly drag the dust particles into the star and thus to their doom. In another possibility, collisions of large rocks left over from an original major impact provide a fresh infusion of dust particles into the disc, which then instigate a runaway process where small grains chip into oblivion both themselves and also larger grains. The research is based on multiple sets of observations of TYC 8241 2652 obtained with the Thermal-Region Camera Spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope in Chile, the IRAS, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite, NASA's Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the Herschel Space Telescope of the European Space Agency (ESA), and AKARI (a Japanese/ESA infrared satellite) "

Major dusty regions are known to exist in our own solar system and include the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and another located beyond the orbit of Neptune. "Although we've identified a couple of mechanisms that are potentially viable, none are really compelling," Melis said. Nearly 30 years ago, NASA's Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) first discovered many similar regions orbiting other stars -- but no disappearing act like the one at TYC 8241 2652 has ever been seen during these three decades.

"We were lucky to catch this disappearing act," Zuckerman said. "Such events could be relatively common, without our knowing it."

Co-authors of the Nature paper are Joseph Rhee, a former UCLA postdoctoral scholar in astronomy, who is now an astronomer at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona; Inseok Song, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Georgia who also was a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA; and astronomers Simon Murphy and Michael Bessell at the Australian National University.

Tuesday, 24 July 2012

What Does It Take To Be An X Class Flare, 12th M-Class Flare From Sunspot 1515 Caused Temporary Radio Blackout. An R2 radio blackout can result in limited degradation of both high- and low-frequency radio communication and GPS signals 1 flare that peaked at 7:44 AM EDT on July 5, 2012. Early in the morning of July 5, 2012 there was an M6. 1 flare. This affects both high and low frequency radio waves alike. Radio blackouts are rated on a scale from R1 (minor) to R5 (extreme). The constant changes in the ionosphere change the paths of the radio waves as they move, thus degrading the information they carry. The image is shown in the 304 Angstrom wavelength, which is typically colorized in red. The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this image of the sun during an M6. Radio blackouts occur when the X-rays or extreme UV light from a flare disturb the layer of Earth's atmosphere known as the ionosphere, through which radio waves travel. This caused a moderate – classified as R2 on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's space weather scale – radio blackout that has since subsided. Active Region 1515 has now spit out 12 M-class flares since July 3. It peaked at 7:44 AM EDT.

The same region has also produced numerous coronal mass ejections or CMEs. They have been observed and modeled by NASA's Space Weather Center (SWC) and are thought to be moving relatively slowly, traveling between 300 and 600 miles per second. Since the active region itself is so southerly in the sun, CMEs from this region are generally unlikely to impact Earth.

The strongest flares are classified as X-class, while M-class flares are the second strongest classification. Classified as an M6.1, this latest flare is a little over half the size of the weakest X-class flares.

What Does It Take To Be An X Class Flare

The most powerful flare measured with modern methods was in 2003, during the last solar maximum, and it was so powerful that it overloaded the sensors measuring it. That means more flares will be coming, some small and some big enough to send their radiation all the way to Earth. So an X is ten times an M and 100 times a C. The number of solar flares increases approximately every 11 years, and the sun is currently moving towards another solar maximum, likely in 2013. Similar to the Richter scale for earthquakes, each letter represents a 10-fold increase in energy output. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft captured this image of a solar flare as it erupted from the sun early on Tuesday, October 28, 2003. Solar flares are classified according to their strength. These flares are often associated with solar magnetic storms known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The smallest ones are A-class, followed by B, C, M and X, the largest. And then come the X-class flares. The smallest ones are A-class (near background levels), followed by B, C, M and X. Within each letter class there is a finer scale from 1 to 9. M-class flares can cause brief radio blackouts at the poles and minor radiation storms that might endanger astronauts. C-class and smaller flares are too weak to noticeably affect Earth. The sensors cut out at X28 The biggest flares are known as "X-class flares" based on a classification system that divides solar flares according to their strength. Although X is the last letter, there are flares more than 10 times the power of an X1, so X-class flares can go higher than 9. Solar flares are giant explosions on the sun that send energy, light and high speed particles into space.

The biggest X-class flares are by far the largest explosions in the solar system and are awesome to watch. Loops tens of times the size of Earth leap up off the sun's surface when the sun's magnetic fields cross over each other and reconnect. In the biggest events, this reconnection process can produce as much energy as a billion hydrogen bombs.

If they're directed at Earth, such flares and associated CMEs can create long lasting radiation storms that can harm satellites, communications systems, and even ground-based technologies and power grids. X-class flares on December 5 and December 6, 2006, for example, triggered a CME that interfered with GPS signals being sent to ground-based receivers.

NASA and NOAA – as well as the US Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) and others -- keep a constant watch on the sun to monitor for X-class flares and their associated magnetic storms. With advance warning many satellites and spacecraft can be protected from the worst effects.

Sunday, 22 July 2012

Hypersonic technologies have the potential to provide the dominance once afforded by stealth to support a range of varied future national security missions. Extreme hypersonic flight at Mach 20 (i. Restoring that battle space advantage requires advanced speed, reach and range. DARPA’s research and development in stealth technology during the 1970s and 1980s led to the world’s most advanced radar-evading aircraft, providing strategic national security advantage to the United States. , 20 times the speed of sound)—which would enable DoD to get anywhere in the world in under an hour—is an area of research where significant scientific advancements have eluded researchers for decades. Thanks to programs by DARPA, the Army, and the Air Force in recent years, however, more information has been obtained about this challenging subject e. Today, that strategic advantage is threatened as other nations’ abilities in stealth and counter-stealth improve.

Tackling remaining unknowns for DoD hypersonics efforts is the focus of the new DARPA Integrated Hypersonics (IH) program. “History is rife with examples of different designs for ‘flying vehicles’ and approaches to the traditional commercial flight we all take for granted today,” explained Gabriel. “For an entirely new type of flight—extreme hypersonic—diverse solutions, approaches and perspectives informed by the knowledge gained from DoD’s previous efforts are critical to achieving our goals.”

To encourage this diversity, DARPA will host a Proposers’ Day on August 14, 2012, to detail the technical areas for which proposals are sought through an upcoming competitive broad agency announcement. At Mach 20, vehicles flying inside the atmosphere experience intense heat, exceeding 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hotter than a blast furnace capable of melting steel, as well as extreme pressure on the aeroshell. ”

The IH program expands hypersonic technology research to include five primary technical areas: thermal protection system and hot structures; aerodynamics; guidance, navigation, and control (GNC); range/instrumentation; and propulsion. “Programs like Integrated Hypersonics will leverage previous investments in this field and continue to reduce risk, inform development, and advance capabilities. “We do not yet have a complete hypersonic system solution,” said Gregory Hulcher, director of Strategic Warfare, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. Another goal is to optimize structural designs and manufacturing processes to enable faster production of high-mach aeroshells The thermal protection materials and hot structures technology area aims to advance understanding of high-temperature material characteristics to withstand both high thermal and structural loads.

Unlike subsonic aircraft that have external probes measuring air density, temperature and pressure of surrounding air, vehicles traveling Mach 20 can’t take external probe measurements. The range/instrumentation area seeks advanced technologies to embed data measurement sensors into the structure that can withstand the thermal and structural loads to provide real-time thermal and structural parameters, such as temperature, heat transfer, and how the aeroshell skin recedes due to heat. Aerodynamics seeks technology solutions to ensure the vehicle effectively manages energy to be able to glide to its destination. Desired technical advances in the GNC technology area include advances in software to enable the vehicle to make real-time, in-flight adjustments to changing parameters, such as high-altitude wind gusts, to stay on an optimal flight trajectory. The aerodynamics technology area focuses on future vehicle designs for different missions and addresses the effects of adding vertical and horizontal stabilizers or other control surfaces for enhanced aero-control of the vehicle. Vehicle concepts that make use of new collection and measurement assets are also being sought Embedding instrumentation that can provide real-time air data measurements on the vehicle during flight is also desired.

The propulsion technology area is developing a single, integrated launch vehicle designed to precisely insert a hypersonic glide vehicle into its desired trajectory, rather than adapting a booster designed for space missions. The propulsion area also addresses integrated rocket propulsion technology onboard vehicles to enable a vehicle to give itself an in-flight rocket boost to extend its glide range.

“By broadening the scope of research and engaging a larger community in our efforts, we have the opportunity to usher in a new area of flight more rapidly and, in doing so, develop a new national security capability far beyond previous initiatives,” explained Air Force Maj. Christopher Schulz, DARPA program manager, who holds a doctorate in aerospace engineering.

The IH program is designed to address technical challenges and improve understanding of long-range hypersonic flight through an initial full-scale baseline test of an existing hypersonic test vehicle, followed by a series of subscale flight tests, innovative ground-based testing, expanded modeling and simulation, and advanced analytic methods, culminating in a test flight of a full-scale hypersonic X-plane (HX) in 2016. HX is envisioned as a recoverable next-generation configuration augmented with a rocket-based propulsion capability that will enable and reduce risk for highly maneuverable, long-range hypersonic platforms.

Friday, 20 July 2012

Most recently, Bahrain’s “Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs” and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt’s new president, Muhammad Morsi, to “destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what the Sahabi Amr bin al-As could not. According to several reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have begun to call for the demolition of Egypt’s Great Pyramids—or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi‘i, those “symbols of paganism,” which Egypt’s Salafi party has long planned to cover with wax. ”

Under al-As and subsequent Muslim rule, many Egyptian antiquities were destroyed as relics of infidelity. This is a reference to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad’s companion, Amr bin al-As and his Arabian tribesmen, who invaded and conquered Egypt circa 641. Nor is such a course of action implausible. History is laden with examples of Muslims destroying their own pre-Islamic heritage—starting with Islam’s prophet Muhammad himself, who destroyed Arabia’s Ka‘ba temple, transforming it into a mosque. The only question left is whether the Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt is “pious” enough—if he is willing to complete the Islamization process that started under the hands of Egypt’s first Islamic conqueror. However, while book-burning was an easy activity in the 7th century, destroying the mountain-like pyramids and their guardian Sphinx was not—even if Egypt’s Medieval Mamluk rulers “de-nosed” the latter during target practice (though popular legend still attributes it to a Westerner, Napoleon). Now, however, as Bahrain’s “Sheikh of Sheikhs” observes, and thanks to modern technology, the pyramids can be destroyed. ” Daniel Pipes provides several examples, from Medieval Muslims in India destroying their forefathers’ temples, to contemporary Muslims destroying their non-Islamic heritage in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Malaysia, and Tunisia While most Western academics argue otherwise, according to early Muslim writers, the great Library of Alexandria itself—deemed a repository of pagan knowledge contradicting the Koran—was destroyed under bin al-As’s reign and in compliance with Caliph Omar’s command. Asking “What is it about Islam that so often turns its adherents against their own patrimony?

Much of this hate for their own pre-Islamic heritage is tied to the fact that, traditionally, Muslims do not identify with this or that nation, culture, heritage, or language, but only with the Islamic nation—the Umma. Currently, in what the International Criminal Court is describing as a possible “war crime,” Islamic fanatics are destroying the ancient heritage of the city of Timbuktu in Mali—all to Islam’s triumphant war cry, “Allahu Akbar! This sentiment was clearly reflected when the former Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Akef, declared “the hell with Egypt,” indicating that the interests of his country are secondary to Islam’s Accordingly, while many Egyptians—Muslims and non-Muslims alike—see themselves as Egyptians, Islamists have no national identity, identifying only with Islam’s “culture,” based on the “sunna” of the prophet and Islam’s language, Arabic.

It is further telling that such calls are being made now—immediately after a Muslim Brotherhood member became Egypt’s president. In fact, the same reports discussing the call to demolish the last of the Seven Wonders of the World, also note that Egyptian Salafis are calling on Morsi to banish all Shias and Baha’is from Egypt.

In other words, Morsi’s call to release the Blind Sheikh, a terrorist mastermind, may be the tip of the iceberg in coming audacity. From calls to legalize Islamic sex-slave marriage to calls to institute “morality police” to calls to destroy Egypt’s mountain-like monuments, under Muslim Brotherhood tutelage, the bottle has been uncorked, and the genie unleashed in Egypt.

Will all those international institutions, which make it a point to look the other way whenever human rights abuses are committed by Muslims, lest they appear “Islamophobic,” at least take note now that the Great Pyramids appear to be next on Islam’s hit list, or will the fact that Muslims are involved silence them once again—even as those most ancient symbols of human civilization are pummeled to the ground?

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Sunday, 8 July 2012

Have you ever had a déjà vu experience? It's the feeling, or impression that you have already witnessed or experienced a current situation.

The term déjà vu is French and means, literally, "already seen."
It is a rather common, yet little understood phenomenon. Most of us have experienced being in a new place and feeling certain that we have been there before, but we have difficulties understanding how it is possible.

For a long time, this eerie sensation has been attributed to everything from paranormal disturbances to neurological disorders.

In recent years, as more scientists began studying this phenomenon, a number of theories about déjà vu have emerged, suggesting that it is not merely a glitch in our brain's memory system.

Psychologists have suggested that déjà vu may occur when specific aspects of a current situation resemble certain aspects of previously occurring situations.

If there is a lot of overlap between the elements of the new and old situations, we get a strong feeling of familiarity.

Alternative explanations associate déjà vu with prophecy, past life memories, clairvoyance, or a mystic signpost indicating fulfillment of a predetermined condition on the journey of life.

Whatever the explanation, déjà vu is certainly a phenomenon that is universal to the human condition, and its fundamental cause is still a mystery.

Another intriguing possibility is that there is a hidden connection between déjà vu and the existence of parallel universes.

As some already know, the multiverse is a theory in which our universe is not the only one, but states that many universes exist parallel to each other. These distinct universes within the multiverse theory are called parallel universes.

According to Dr. Kaku, quantum physics states that there is the possibility that déjà vu might be caused by your ability to "flip between different universes".

Dr. Kaku mentions, Professor Steve Weinberg, the famous theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner, supports the idea of a multiverse.

Weinberg says that there are an infinite number of parallel realities coexisting with us in the same room.

"There are hundreds of different radio waves being broadcast all around you from distant stations. At any given instant, your office or car or living room is full of these radio waves. However if you turn on a radio, you can listen to only one frequency at a time; these other frequencies are not in phase with each other.

Each station has a different frequency, a different energy. As a result, your radio can only be turned to one broadcast at a time.

Likewise, in our universe we are tuned into the frequency that corresponds to physical reality.

But there are an infinite number of parallel realities coexisting with us in the same room, although we cannot tune into them."

While your radio is tuned to pick up a certain frequency and thus a single radio station, our universe consists of atoms that are oscillating at a unique frequency that other universes are not vibrating at.

Universes are usually not "in phase", that is vibrating at the same frequency, with each other due to the divisions caused by time, but when they are "in phase" it is theoretically possible to "move back and forth" between universes.

So although it is "uncertain", it could be possible that when you are experiencing déjà vu, you are "vibrating in unison" with a parallel universe, explains Dr. Kaku

Perhaps our déjà vu experiences are a window into a parallel universe.

Friday, 6 July 2012

Little or nothing until now. What does a robot feel when it touches something? Researchers at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering published a study June 18 in Frontiers in Neurorobotics showing that a specially designed robot can outperform humans in identifying a wide range of natural materials according to their textures, paving the way for advancements in prostheses, personal assistive robots and consumer product testing But with the right sensors, actuators and software, robots can be given the sense of feel -- or at least the ability to identify different materials by touch.

As the finger slides over a textured surface, the skin vibrates in characteristic ways. The skin even has fingerprints on its surface, greatly enhancing its sensitivity to vibration. These vibrations are detected by a hydrophone inside the bone-like core of the finger. Capable of other human sensations, the sensor can also tell where and in which direction forces are applied to the fingertip and even the thermal properties of an object being touched. It also used a newly designed algorithm to make decisions about how to explore the outside world by imitating human strategies. The robot was equipped with a new type of tactile sensor built to mimic the human fingertip. The human finger uses similar vibrations to identify textures, but the robot finger is even more sensitive Like the human finger, the group's BioTac® sensor has a soft, flexible skin over a liquid filling.

A famous theorem by 18th century mathematician Thomas Bayes describes how decisions might be made from the information obtained during these movements. "

Built by Fishel, the specialized robot was trained on 117 common materials gathered from fabric, stationery and hardware stores. The article, authored by Professor of Biomedical Engineering Gerald Loeb and recently graduated doctoral student Jeremy Fishel, describes their new theorem for solving this general problem as "Bayesian Exploration. When confronted with one material at random, the robot could correctly identify the material 95% of the time, after intelligently selecting and making an average of five exploratory movements. When humans try to identify an object by touch, they use a wide range of exploratory movements based on their prior experience with similar objects. Until now, however, there was no way to decide which exploratory movement to make next. It was only rarely confused by pairs of similar textures that human subjects making their own exploratory movements could not distinguish at all

So, is touch another task that humans will outsource to robots? Fishel and Loeb point out that while their robot is very good at identifying which textures are similar to each other, it has no way to tell what textures people will prefer. Instead, they say this robot touch technology could be used in human prostheses or to assist companies who employ experts to assess the feel of consumer products and even human skin.

Loeb and Fishel are partners in SynTouch LLC, which develops and manufactures tactile sensors for mechatronic systems that mimic the human hand. Founded in 2008 by researchers from USC's Medical Device Development Facility, the start-up is now selling their BioTac sensors to other researchers and manufacturers of industrial robots and prosthetic hands.

Wednesday, 4 July 2012

Evidence For An Invisible Mirror Twin To Our Universe, Neutrons Oscillating Between Worlds.

In a paper recently published in EPJ C¹, researchers hypothesised the existence of mirror particles to explain the anomalous loss of neutrons observed experimentally. It showed that the loss rate of very slow free neutrons appeared to depend on the direction and strength of the magnetic field applied. This anomaly could not be explained by known physics The existence of such mirror matter had been suggested in various scientific contexts some time ago, including the search for suitable dark matter candidates. Theoretical physicists Zurab Berezhiani and Fabrizio Nesti from the University of l'Aquila, Italy, reanalysed the experimental data obtained by the research group of Anatoly Serebrov at the Institut Laue-Langevin, France. An anomaly in the behavior of ordinary particles may point to the existence of mirror particles that could be candidates for dark matter responsible for the missing mass of the universe.

Berezhiani believes it could be interpreted in the light of a hypothetical parallel world consisting of mirror particles. Each neutron would have the ability to transition into its invisible mirror twin, and back, oscillating from one world to the other. The probability of such a transition happening was predicted to be sensitive to the presence of magnetic fields, and could therefore be detected experimentally.

This neutron-mirror-neutron oscillation could occur within a timescale of a few seconds, according to the paper. The possibility of such a fast disappearance of neutrons—much faster than the ten-minute long neutron decay—albeit surprising, could not be excluded by existing experimental and astrophysical limits.

"Bubble universes": every disk is a bubble universe (Universe 1 to Universe 6 are different bubbles; they have physical constants that are different from our universe); our universe is just one of the bubbles.

This interpretation is subject to the condition that the earth possesses a mirror magnetic field on the order of 0. 1 Gauss. Such a field could be induced by mirror particles floating around in the galaxy as dark matter. Hypothetically, the earth could capture the mirror matter via some feeble interactions between ordinary particles and those from parallel worlds.

Monday, 2 July 2012

Data from NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft indicate that the venerable deep-space explorer has encountered a region in space where the intensity of charged particles from beyond our solar system has markedly increased. Voyager scientists looking at this rapid rise draw closer to an inevitable but historic conclusion -- that humanity's first emissary to interstellar space is on the edge of our solar system.

"The laws of physics say that someday Voyager will become the first human-made object to enter interstellar space, but we still do not know exactly when that someday will be," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "The latest data indicate that we are clearly in a new region where things are changing more quickly. It is very exciting. We are approaching the solar system's frontier."

The data making the 16-hour-38 minute, 11.1-billion-mile (17.8-billion-kilometer), journey from Voyager 1 to antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network on Earth detail the number of charged particles measured by the two High Energy telescopes aboard the 34-year-old spacecraft. These energetic particles were generated when stars in our cosmic neighborhood went supernova.

"From January 2009 to January 2012, there had been a gradual increase of about 25 percent in the amount of galactic cosmic rays Voyager was encountering," said Stone. "More recently, we have seen very rapid escalation in that part of the energy spectrum. Beginning on May 7, the cosmic ray hits have increased five percent in a week and nine percent in a month."

This marked increase is one of a triad of data sets which need to make significant swings of the needle to indicate a new era in space exploration. The second important measure from the spacecraft's two telescopes is the intensity of energetic particles generated inside the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself. While there has been a slow decline in the measurements of these energetic particles, they have not dropped off precipitously, which could be expected when Voyager breaks through the solar boundary.

The final data set that Voyager scientists believe will reveal a major change is the measurement in the direction of the magnetic field lines surrounding the spacecraft. While Voyager is still within the heliosphere, these field lines run east-west. When it passes into interstellar space, the team expects Voyager will find that the magnetic field lines orient in a more north-south direction. Such analysis will take weeks, and the Voyager team is currently crunching the numbers of its latest data set.

"When the Voyagers launched in 1977, the space age was all of 20 years old," said Stone. "Many of us on the team dreamed of reaching interstellar space, but we really had no way of knowing how long a journey it would be -- or if these two vehicles that we invested so much time and energy in would operate long enough to reach it."

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 are in good health. Voyager 2 is more than 9.1 billion miles (14.7 billion kilometers) away from the sun. Both are operating as part of the Voyager Interstellar Mission, an extended mission to explore the solar system outside the neighborhood of the outer planets and beyond. NASA's Voyagers are the two most distant active representatives of humanity and its desire to explore.

The Voyager spacecraft were built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which continues to operate both. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.